Hockey is *almost* back, as news has broken this week that a new collective bargaining agreement and return to play plan could be ratified in the coming days. Lots of… uh… exciting stuff to break down here, and John, Andy, and Darren do their best to accomplish this.
The guys also take a look at an article from The Athletic this week that utilizes the local knowledge of its writers to put together a mock expansion team on Seattle’s behalf. This leads to a new gameshow from John, in which nobody wins.
Also, at a listener’s request, John, Andy, and Darren share a few of their favorite games to go back and watch in preparation for the NHL potentially returning on August 1st.
Segments this week include Goalie Gear Corner, Weekly One-Timers, and Tweets of the Week.
The groundbreaking celebration was set for February 18th in the California desert. Free tickets had been distributed and presumably ceremonial shovels were acquired for various photo ops as the excitement for a new hockey arena in Palm Springs was building.
Five days prior to the event, it was cancelled.
The arena in question is a joint operation between Oak View Group and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, costing $250 million to result in a 10,000 seat facility to house NHL Seattle’s American Hockey League affiliate. Construction was set to start in February and the arena was to be finished in time for the beginning of the 2021-2022 AHL Season.
The reason given for the delay of the breaking ground event was “extenuating circumstances” and an apology for any inconvenience was offered by tribal officials. The delay hardly seemed like anything to worry about at the time. Arena deals are complicated and surely there were details to iron out between the tribe and Oak View Group.
Now, five months later, the arena is in limbo and the clock is ticking.
“Once we get past (the virus) we’ll make a decision if we’re gonna proceed,” Leiweke he told the Sun without any specifics on when they would reevaluate.
The ‘if’ in Leiweke’s statement lands heavy.
This was the first time that anyone hinted at the prospect of the arena not moving forward. As detailed in the Sun article, there have been issues surrounding a parking plan and other safety concerns to be settled. Nobody has gone on record to say that these issues are deal-breakers, however.
Could the arena deal in Palm Springs end up being delayed? What kind of repercussions would that have on NHL Seattle’s plan for an AHL affiliate?
When asked for clarification, OVG’s Senior Vice President of Entertainment overseeing the Palm Springs Arena, John Bolton, couldn’t offer much more detail.
“Given the current unprecedented times, discussions around arena construction timelines continue and we will provide updates when available as we work closely with the City of Palm Springs and Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians,” Bolton said.
That statement feels more positive as the groups are still talking about timelines, giving the appearance that the deal is ultimately going to happen. The question of when, remains.
The AHL approved NHL Seattle’s bid for expansion to Palm Springs in September of 2019 and the new team was set to join the league for the 2021-2022 season, the same season that the NHL club would begin play.
Assuming that OVG and the Agua Caliente tribe can work out the kinks of the arena deal and begin construction, the timeline to begin play in the desert by next season appears to be in jeopardy. How fast can they build a 300,000 square foot facility?
If Palm Springs is delayed, or if the arena deal falls apart completely, where will, or can, NHL Seattle turn to for its AHL players in 2021?
Playing without a taxi squad is out of the question as NHL Seattle will need minor league players. Even in year one, there will be injuries, there will be call ups and getting players into the system and developing is key to long term successes.
NHL Seattle will need to have a plan if Palm Springs is delayed.
It’s unlikely that the team would find a temporary city to house an AHL squad as the logistics involved would be extensive and not worth the effort for one year.
Having an AHL team play out of Climate Pledge Arena is one option. The San Jose Sharks share the SAP Center and a practice facility with their affiliate, the Barracuda, so it wouldn’t be unprecedented. The Sharks are building a new, smaller building for the Barracuda, however.
Sharing an arena would present some travel issues as the AHL relies mostly on bus travel and Seattle would be isolated from the rest of the AHL’s Pacific Division which sees five of its seven clubs in California. Could those travel concerns be palatable for one season? Maybe.
The most likely recourse would be to split the affiliation with an existing AHL team.
For their inaugural season, the Vegas Golden Knights shared the Chicago Wolves with the St. Louis Blues. Vegas had 13 players who spent the majority of the 2017-2018 season in Chicago. Three of those players they had acquired through the NHL expansion draft, two were picked up via a trade, while eight were signed as free agents.
The Blues moved their affiliate the next season and the Knights have since purchased the San Antonio Rampage and relocated them to Henderson, Nevada, re-branding them as the Henderson Silver Knights.
Which team to join would also be a question. Currently, just 12 of the AHL’s 31 clubs are independently owned, with the rest owned by the NHL parent club. Seattle would have to work with one of the independents to split the roster.
If Seattle were to split a team for a year it would mean they would have fewer players in the AHL pipeline. Rather than a full roster of players, it would be half. Depending on what team they split with and who the other prospects are, playing time could be affected and as such, player development. It’s not a great long-term option but could bridge the year if needed.
The optimist says that the arena deal can get finalized and under construction shortly with enough time to be opened for the next AHL season. One thing working in Seattle’s favor is the uncertainty of when hockey seasons will start up again. If the AHL pushes back the start of this coming season, and therefore next season, Palm Springs could end up with more time to get the arena built.
But, in the meantime, NHL Seattle will need a contingency plan in case there is no arena for an AHL team to play in, come 2021.
On this week’s Sound of Hockey, the guys give their reactions to the news that NHL Seattle’s future home will be called Climate Pledge Arena, which gets their wheels turning about which NHL/NBA arenas have the worst corporate names.
Also on this episode, John, Andy, and Darren recap the chaotic NHL Draft Lottery that happened this past week.
That dastardly Jeff Bezos has done it again! The eccentric gazillionaire CEO of Amazon let the cat out of the bag Thursday that his company had bought the naming rights to the former Key Arena, and would be re-naming the future home of the NHL Seattle franchise Climate Pledge Arena.
True story, my wife read the news to me while we were in the car, and my real-time reaction was that she was reading fake news and had been duped. “That’s the stupidest name ever!” I probably exclaimed. But then she shared the whole context of the name—that the building would have zero waste at events, electric Zambonis, ice made from recycled rain water, and a whole host of other green initiatives—and my mind was immediately changed.
Rendering of a concourse at the future Climate Pledge Arena.
I loved it. I still love it. Climate. Pledge. Arena. As in, “I’m an arena that pledges to be the most climate friendly of all the arenas, and if you aren’t climate friendly, then please at least keep your single-use plastics the f*** out of here.”
Sure, NHL Seattle, Oak View Group, and Amazon could have come up with something that slides off the tongue with a little more zest, but frankly, they also could have called it Jeff Bezos Prime Rink at Amazon Arena, Powered by AWS. And you know something? With the likes of AWS CEO, Andy Jassy, among the minority owners of the team, and the headquarters of one of the world’s largest companies next door, a terrible corporate name like that would have been completely feasible and downright warranted.
But they didn’t do that. Instead, Amazon still invested the (likely) hundreds of millions of dollars to earn the rights, but rather than sticking its own name on the façade, decided to make the glowing signs atop the historic preserved roof serve as a daily reminder to Seattleites and visitors from around the globe (well, if the pandemic ever ends) that our city, which gets its lifeblood from the natural beauty that envelops it, is a leader in the fight against climate change.
It’s a beautifully progressive approach to something that has been the same for decades. Yet, many of the folks on Twitter have poopooed this progressive thinking.
Case in point:
I'm all for fighting climate change, but this is the dumbest f**king name ever. I'd be happier with 'Sticky Dick Arena'. https://t.co/65gPwYEi3c
And for those saying that Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, and he could just spend the money to fight climate change, well… yes… he certainly could. But why would he give the pocket change that it cost him to buy the naming rights to this arena, when he can instead pledge $10 billion? Yes, Amazon has certainly contributed to the climate crisis, but so have you, and with all due respect, how much money have you pledged?
Anyway, since everyone seems to be so upset that an organization would do something so ridiculous as focus the naming rights of an arena on something as silly as climate change, perhaps you would have preferred that they call it something a little more straight forward and corporate, like one of the following perfectly named and less controversial venues from across the United States:
Smoothie King Arena
KFC Yum! Arena
PPG Paints Arena
American Airlines Arena
American Airlines Center
Chase Center
Chase Field
Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Mercedes-Benz Superdome
Target Center
Target Field
T-Mobile Field
CenturyLink Field
Lincoln Financial Field
Minute Maid Park (formerly “Enron Field”… ENRON! LOL!)
Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
Guaranteed Rate Field
Citizens Bank Park
TIAA Bank Field
M&T Bank Stadium
US Bank Stadium
Little Caesars Arena
Hard Rock Stadium
Chesapeake Energy Center
FirstEnergy Stadium
Xcel Energy Center
Or, my personal favorite:
Talking Stick Resort Arena
You’re right, something like those more traditional venue names would have been way better than naming the arena after something that draws attention to the environment. Oh, and by the way, of the seven Canadian NHL arenas, two have the word “Rogers” in the name (not to be confused with Rogers Centre, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays), two have “Bell,” two have “Scotiabank,” and the last one is called Canadian Tire Centre, but was previously called… yep, you guessed it… Scotiabank Place.
They could have just called it Amazon Arena, but you wouldn’t have liked that either. Climate Pledge Arena. Climate. Pledge. Arena. That’s our arena. That’s our Greenhouse. That’s our Bio-Dome. I love it.
Watch the below video from NHL Seattle’s press release to learn more about Climate Pledge Arena and its green initiatives.
Lots of news to discuss on this week’s Sound of Hockey, both locally and nationally.
First, Andy gives an update on what’s happening with the WHL. Then John gives an update on what’s happening with the NHL Seattle franchise, as the name release and AHL arena have apparently been delayed. John, Andy, and Darren also give an update as to what is happening for the NHL as a whole, which is still proceeding with its return to play plan. Oh, and Buffalo fired its whole staff.
Segments this week include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
On this week’s Sound of Hockey, Darren is quite frustrated by his experience buying his first car through a car dealership, and he gives his two cents via a show-opening “Get Off My Lawn” segment.
John, Andy, and Darren also break down a recent NHLtoSeattle.com story about potential goalies that NHL Seattle may select in the 2021 Expansion Draft.
It’s a short but sweet episode, that’s worth a listen!
Other segments this week include Weekly One-Timers and Tweets of the Week.
